"The Last Condo Board Of The Apocalypse" reminded me of a Groucho Marx quote:

"It's nice work if you can get it... but I don't get it."

This novel is stuffed with creative ideas, comic juxtapositions, Single Purpose Angels that seem like loner-Minions with a snack obsession, Angels of Destruction wearing business suits and grimly determined smiles and through all of it runs our I'm-good-with-disguises-perhaps-because-I-have-no-idea-who-I-am heroine.

The plot seems to be onion-paper thin. It doesn't drive the action so much as give a group of potentially comic personalities a place to bump into one another and produce random flashes of humour.

This kind of thing either works for you and carries you away or leaves you feeling like the only sober, celibate, vegetarian at a drunken orgy in a steakhouse.

Add to this the irritation of low production standards: missing words, typos and weird fonts in the ebook and my but-it-may-get-better hopefulness was replaced by: "I used to be an optimist, but I knew it wouldn't last." I'm moving on.

The story concept is strong, the humour is definitely here, but the writing is weak. Way too many needless details, a tendency to tell more than show and in terms of 'solving' the not-really-a-mystery, not enough transparency of clues to the reader. There's a fine line between telegraphing the plot to readers too early with bulky clues, and keeping them completely in the dark until the end when the MC says "I knew all along; I had it figured out from the first." and then not explain why she knew all along. Character developments were pretty choppy too.

In spite of all of this though, it was a surprisingly readable, almost compellingly so, book. It definitely needs a strong editor and a lot of re-writes, but as is, it's still a fun read, once you get past the first couple of chapters, which is only something I was able to do because I had no other book available at that moment. I'd have DNF'd it otherwise. As it is, I was entertained in much the same way a B movie entertains: it was fun and frivolous.

This is the first in a series, but unless there's been some draconian editing done in them, I'm not likely to read any further.

This is one of the most absurd books I've read but I enjoyed it a lot.

Kelly hunts monsters and fallen angels for a living, but the job isn't the same any more and vampire hunting is the new best thing. When she takes a job to find a fallen angel in a large condo in Pothole City she does so in the most ridiculous disguises. Along the way she promotes several Cluck Snack products and meets a Condo board not only planning the next renovation but also the Apocalypse.

It is so weird, but so much fun. I can't really tell too much about it, because it won't make any sense unless you've read the book. The Single Purposes really stole my heart (some of them anyway). If you're looking for some rather absurd urban fantasy which is definitely different from the last thing you've read, give The Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse a try.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse is an urban fantasy novel dealing with demons, fallen angels and an interesting array of monsters. Kelly Drisoll has been hired by Destroying Angel of the Apocalypse to track down a rival angel. This search takes her to Amenity Towers, which houses earthbound angels and all manner of monsters. To carry out her investigation, Kelly dons a multitude of disguises and claims to be various professions. She is given two days to carry out her task and with armageddon at stake, Kelly cannot afford to waste a single minute but unfortunately, the residents of Amenity Towers have other ideas.I was drawn to this book by the title. It conveyed a lightheartedness that isn't a regular occurrence in urban fantasy. From the very beginning of the story however, I was confused. Post does not spend any time at all building her world and it feels a bit like being thrown into whirling mass of confusion. Clearly, there is some understanding that humans are not the only sentient beings because a local college offers courses in vampire hunting; however, the foundations of this understanding are not explained in the least. There is no explanation as to whether or not this is universally understood or something unique to the fictional Pothole City.I know that Post was counting on humour to sell this story but outside of the actual condo meetings themselves, the book fell very flat. There were times when I was downright bored and found myself leaving to do something else. Part of the problem is that The Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse is just too busy. There are too many angels and monsters to possibly keep track of. Some characters appear for a few pages, simply to disappear without their relevance to the story being explained. This of course added to the general lack of coherence in the story. In many ways, The Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse suffered from a lack of content editing. For example, we are told Raum told AF about his plans to escape the condo, yet it was AF who actually escaped and then said he was the one who told Raum how to leave. If the writer cannot keep track of their own plot, how is the reader supposed to do so? What do all of the little interludes have to do with advancing the plot? The entire book felt disjointed to me.As aforementioned, the protagonist is Kelly Drisoll, a no nonsense human. Kelly is quick on her feet and extremely inventive. I enjoyed the ease at which she took on different roles to complete her investigation but felt that I didn't really got to know her as a person. Post did include a small flashback, which in part helped to explain Kelly's motivations but really fell short of good characterization. It is however worth nothing that Post did fall prey to a common urban fantasy trope in that once again, we have a protagonist who is on her own, after the tragic death of her family at a very young age.Read More

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